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Outdoor Learning Space Completion Report
Posted in News
Baby Owls Born in the Findhorn Hinterland
Somewhere in the hinterland beyond the Findhorn Ecovillage at the Park lives a mysterious creature. It has ears like a cat, it meows like a cat and it appears much larger than a cat. Do you know what it might be?
It is the Long-Eared Owl (also known as the cat owl) – one of the most enigmatic and secretive species of owl in the UK. And… this May owlets appeared -the mama owl decided to nest in the Findhorn Hinterland and hatch out two young, which are now already big and able to fly on their own. This is really special news!
Asio otus, the latin name for Long Eared Owl, is one of the 5 species of owl in the UK the others being our well-known Tawny Owl, the ghosty Barn Owl, the elusive Short Eared Owl and the smallest one, originally not native to the UK, the Little Owl. Long Eared Owls are probably the species that are least often seen and are also rarely heard by birdwatchers. This is because they are strictly nocturnal (other owls sometimes fly during daylight), they have secretive behaviour and they rarely hoot (the sound usually made by owls). Unlike many other owls, they are not strongly territorial but instead have nomadic habits which means they may change their territory from year to year. Having a Long-Eared Owl nesting and successfully fledging in the Findhorn Hinterland is a good indicator that we are doing the right thing in terms of land management.
I like to call them flying cats because they fly silently and when perched, their long ears stand out. Scientists still do not know why exactly they have such long ears which are known as erectile ear tufts. What they do know is that they are a specialised predator which means they are strictly dependent on a specific prey. This makes them very sensitive to population decline of their prey species which can happen for example if humans use rodenticides or rat poison – an important reason for not using these chemicals.
On one frosty night in March earlier in the year, I was lucky enough to hear the slow, repetitive, hypnotic hooting of this owl – “hoooo (…) hooooo (….) hooooo”. It was indeed a lucky event because the owl rarely hoots unless it is calling for a partner and when it does the sound cannot be heard much further than 500 meters away by us humans. To my knowledge it did this only one single night in March and then I had no further sightings and didn’t hear them again for a long time.
Much later whilst walking on the dunes one bright evening in May, I saw the owl again flying silently and low whilst hunting for voles, its favourite prey. I then realised that the owl must have settled and made its territory in the Findhorn Hinterland sometime in March – it had just been very secretive and not shown any sign of its presence. I used my knowledge to guesstimate where it might be nesting and weeks later I had my suspicions confirmed by hearing the call of the two newborn baby owls. Unlike their parents they are noisy for a few weeks when they make begging calls for food from their mother. Since then a few others including Alan Featherstone and I, have seen these baby owls with their outstanding long ears. Their rather slim parents with a wingspan of 1 metre and an ability to fly silently and buoyantly have also been seen regularly. They prefer to roost in conifer trees, but hunt over open ground. Our Findhorn Hinterland has both habitats as well as an abundance of voles and is rat poison free, so this is a perfect habitat for them.
Our Findhorn Hinterland is also home to other special species of birds like Crested Tits and Crossbills as well as rare fungi and lichens. Do consider supporting our work in encouraging and conserving the biodiversity of the special land that surrounds our community by becoming a member and getting involved in the environmental and land based community activities we offer.
For now, let’s wish a warm welcome to our new baby Long Eared Owls! If you are lucky enough to come across them, do make sure to not disturb these beautiful, shy and secretive fellow creatures that we feel so honoured to have living next to us.
Posted in News
National Honey Monitoring Scheme
The Findhorn Apiary participates in the National Honey Monitoring Scheme, which is important research making use of the foraging of honey bees to monitor environmental changes. We are delighted to be part of the Scheme. We receive interesting information about which plants our bees have been visiting, derived from DNA analysis of the honey. In due course we will also be provided with analysis of contaminants they experience.
The video gives a brief explanation of the Scheme.
Posted in News
FHT Chair’s Spring Roundup
By Jonathan Caddy
There are many things going on connected with the FHT this spring both on the land and within the organisation. Here is a brief roundup of some that may interest you:
EWG Work Party – The Trust is in the process of securing a small grant from Volunteering Matters to help us run the first of our work parties for over a year. This will be to carry out a spring clean up of our Edible Woodland Garden. This will take place over a number of sessions to reduce the number of people involved at one time to comply with covid restrictions. The first will be 9.30pm- 12 noon on Saturday the 29th of May and will be at the same times over the following two weekends. Contact [email protected] to get involved. This will be honouring, caring and bringing more life to this great resource that we have on our doorstep.
FHT Employment of Kajedo Wanderer as a Land Manager – After almost five years of seconding Kajedo from the Findhorn Foundation and with his position within the FF being terminated, the FHT has taken the bold step of becoming his employer for at least half his working time. Kajedo, with his considerable skill and land-based knowledge, is warmly welcomed as a FHT employee. There will be some further relooking at innovative ways of increasing financial income to meet this important and long-term commitment.
Opportunities to contribute – A part time Land Manager cannot do everything that needs to be done to care for the land that we look after. There are a whole host of ways others can meaningfully get involved – helping give guided tours when they restart, taking on an awareness of a part of the land (the green burial area, paths, lichen beds, grassland and butterflies, bird boxes), being a camp host for those camping on the land, attending our work parties or green gym activities etc. Please get in touch by email [email protected] or phone 07825212816 if you are inspired to contribute in any way. Thank you.
Paid Membership Campaign– One of the ways the FHT is making sure that it is sustainable well into the future is by people who appreciate what the organisation does contributing by becoming a paid member. At present there are 82 people who are paid members out of a previous membership of 262 – many of these people still do not understand that the membership criteria has changed. If you are one of them or simply feel inspired, please do join and support us in this way by following this link – it really does make a huge difference.
Other Personnel Changes –We welcomed three new trustees in January, Paulo Bessa, Arun Patel and Bryan Parsons as Sylvia Robertson and Donna Skelly stood down after their valued input over the last few years. Donna did so saying that she was very willing to carry on as the FHT’s solicitor, which is much appreciated. Paulo has been of considerable help already as he took on a fundraising role to help with the funding of the Conservation Hub and Arun has agreed to be the new Membership Secretary as our Lorraine Rytz-Theriault stood down after several years of valiant service – she carries on as our tea lady when work parties happen.
There are also two other new members of our team – Birgit Carow who is contributing her talented design skills helping produce articles for the Bridge and Christine Lines who takes over from Shanti Codee as our webmaster, updating the website and supporting the marketing efforts.
Will Russell our Green Burial Coordinator is also looking to release his role after over a decade of building up and holding this vital part of the organisation. As we all know the multi-talented Will cannot be replaced but over the coming months we will be looking together at ways that his FHT functions can be covered.
As you can see there has been a lot of changes in the last few months which I see as positive as ultimately it is the robust organisational structure that will carry on the good work of the trust into the distant future as all the talented people serving it come, enjoy giving of themselves to our great cause and then move on.
My thanks goes out to all of you, past and present, that so generously contribute to the smooth running of the trust and ultimately to the benefit of the beautiful land we live next to with all the amazing beings that live there.
Jonathan Caddy
FHT Chair
20th May 2021
Posted in News
FHT Membership Secretary
By Dr Arunkumar Patel
The year 2020 was an interesting year that gave me opportunity to ask, “What is important to me? What is my purpose in life at the physical spot I am in? How can I become useful to ‘worldly causes’ that builds a better future for generations to come?” Having spent most of my working life in three continents serving to improve human health, it was tempting to look ‘Global’. Then a voice in my mind gently reminded me that ‘charity begins at home’. Having settled in The Park, Findhorn Community for the past four years I have been receiving the gift of living in an environment which I am proud of. It has not only helped me heal ‘old’ physical alignments, it has promoted my full health. I realised, “it is the environment in my backyard, that keeps me healthy and happy”.
In the past years, I often joined Findhorn Hinterland (FHT) work parties to make a small contribution towards maintaining the beauty of the hinterland that surrounds my physical living here. As if to answer my question, FHT invited new members to join the Board of Trustees. Like other calls that have brought me to live amongst the Findhorn Community, I responded to ‘the call’. So now I am here, leading the Membership.
FHT has been emerging as an independent entity for the past few years, and last year it took the bold step to make it a membership organisation. Encouraging individual membership is one way to become inclusive and sustainable. By involving members in financially supporting the organisation and getting involved in work programmes, FHT will become a ‘truly community endeavour’ that looks after nature within the global framework of a sustainable environment that supports human life. FHT will provide a ‘nucleus’ for activities with nature that will emit the sustainable energy to the wider world. FHT members will thus engage in a global environmental movement by ‘think Global, act local’ momentum, which is the call of the day.
In this changing, challenging new world order that is bubbling to evolve around us, can there be any better time to get involved? Already 82 individuals have responded to the call. I am looking forwards to many more. We intend to keep in regular touch with members through newsletters, work-programmes and consultations on various ideas that will evolve in coming months. We will also arrange some discussions, presentations and talks with our active teams and local experts on the progress of FHT projects through online sessions or when permitted in person. I am excited and looking forward to the growth and impact of FHT. I invite you to join us.
Posted in News
FHT Conservation Hub
By Jonathan Caddy
Finally a physical base for the Findhorn Hinterland Trust and its good work is on the horizon! It has been thought about for over five years – a meeting place for our regular volunteering and educational events, an important space to present educational information to local people and visiting public as well as a space to house and maintain our valuable tools and equipment including our old Grey Fergie tractor, Fergus, and trailer.
Three years ago an agreement was sought and granted from the landowner the Findhorn Foundation to build the structure on the southern edge of Wilkies Wood close to the present wood store and access track to the FHT Green Burial site on the northern edge of Pineridge. Henry Fosbrooke, a master builder who built the Outdoor Learning Space building in our Edible Woodland Garden, helped design the building, which will use round timbers cut from our woods for its main structure. Cladding and other squared building timber will also be from our own trees with Logie Sawmill set up to process them – at present you will see them lying in various places next to the Pineridge road. Overall the building will be 100m2 with much of this covered space to keep our materials and tractor and trailer dry with a smaller enclosed space for our workshop facility and safe tool storage. The outside of the building will be used to present educational material.
This winter the site was cleared by Kajedo Wanderer, our Land Manager, and these trees along with others thinned nearby in the woods, have been measured, selected and dragged to the site using our tractor. We received a small grant from Volunteering Matters to allow us to purchase woodworking tools and for a good many weeks in February/March over 25 volunteers peeled and prepared the logs – a splendid community effort in the snow and darker months. Thanks goes out to all involved.
Meanwhile, a detailed budget for the project was prepared and a small fundraising subgroup worked on a ‘Case for Support’ to go out to potential funders. Nine grant applications have been sent so far with the Ena and Gordon Baxter Foundation coming back to us with a pledge of £2000 already. This along with the generous contributions from a few individuals within our community and a small but significant sum from the New Findhorn Association (NFA), brings us close to raising a quarter of the £20,000 needed to fully fund the project.
The Hub represents a huge step forward for the FHT. It will allow us to continue and further develop our vital work to bring together people of all ages in the local community and to provide recreational resources that promote the benefits of social outdoor activities and volunteering. This functional structure will ensure a physical presence and promote active community engagement and education for present and future generations.
Please hold this important project in your positive thoughts as we invoke further funding. If you have further ideas on how we might progress this project or you wish to be involved as a volunteer when we do get the green light, do get in touch.
Posted in News
A bee’s view of life at the Findhorn Apiary
I live at the Findhorn Apiary with my sisters and cousins. About 100,000 of us lived through last winter, in eight hives and were delighted that all eight colonies were healthy and ready for spring.
In the autumn we had been given plenty of lovely thick sugar syrup to fill our combs, so we had a full larder to keep us fed through the cold months. We were also given packs of sugar fondant just in case we got hungry. The treatment given against the varroa mite, which sucks fluids out of our bodies and spreads viruses to us, was very effective, so it gives us a good start to the season.
The people who come to help us are very attentive to our needs. They call themselves beekeepers but really it is us, and our sisters worldwide, who sustain them by fertilising many of their food crops.
This spring our beekeepers decided to give us some extra syrup with a seaweed extract. We really loved it and soon our queens increased their rate of laying, ready for the first flow of nectar. Unfortunately, the weather has been so cold the nectar has been delayed so it has been hard work for us feeding all our youngsters.
Most of the young bees are female but we have made some larger cells in which the queen lays unfertilised eggs. These develop into drones, male bees. They wander around trying to look busy, waiting for us to feed them. They have large eyes so when a young queen goes off for her mating flight they can easily see and follow her. I think that is all the drones are interested in!
On one of our foraging trips around the gardens at The Park we came across a tub of water with seaweed in it. It was delicious, and we had learnt that it was good for us, soon lots of us were making special trips to drink there.
Our beekeepers come and visit us every week. There are more of them this year and the new ones are keen to learn all about us. It is funny listening to the ‘experienced’ beekeepers talking about us. They know quite a lot but we often give them a surprise by doing something unexpected. Perhaps they should spend more time listening to us.
They have tried a double queen system on two hives, where the upper brood box is partitioned off from the lower one, so another queen is raised in it. In time there should be lots of bees ready to forage during the main nectar flow. We wait to see if this works.
Our beekeepers are very keen that we do not swarm. We like to do this. Some of us can go off and set up a new colony in a new home. That is our natural way of increasing our population. However, our beekeepers have various arrangements to ensure that our new home is in their apiary. It is a bit disruptive to our way of life but with all the problems we face in the wild, we are more likely to survive by being kept in the apiary.
We heard that some people have been very kind, giving funds to help provide us with what we need. Robert Holden has again given a donation. NFD also gave to us in exchange for some tree work that John Willoner had done for them. Thank you.
Some of our foragers spotted a team of our beekeepers working at the Outdoor Learning Space. They were busy making new frames of foundation on which we can build new comb. They talked a lot about us, they seem to really enjoy being a beekeeping team and are happy for more people to come to learn about us.
Posted in News
Hinterland Hazel
Catkins on a young hazel tree on the south side of Wilkie’s Wood on 1st March 2021.
By Alan Featherstone Watson
This is another of my occasional articles about the biodiversity of the Findhorn Hinterland area, this time about hazel trees in spring. After the snow melted in the middle of February, the warmer weather has really accelerated the coming of spring, and many people will have noticed one of the first signs of this – the plentiful catkins on hazel trees. These open out (from the catkin buds that formed last year) well before the new leaves appear, and are the male flowers of the hazel, producing abundant pollen which is dispersed by the wind.
Female flower on the hazel tree on 1st March.
Much less obvious, and less well-known perhaps, are the female flowers. These are tiny red structures with numerous curved dark red ‘fingers’ that emerge from the top of special buds on the hazel’s twigs. They are easily missed as they are quite inconspicuous, so it can require careful searching to find them. They are often positioned slightly further back on the twigs than the catkins, and usually not too close to them.
Here, a female flower is very close to catkins, showing the difference in size between them.
Hazel is self-incompatible, meaning that an individual tree cannot pollinate itself, and instead requires pollen from another tree for fertilisation and subsequent hazelnut development to take place. Despite its early flowering, the act of fertilisation does not occur in hazel for several months, as the ovaries only begin to develop in the female flowers after pollination has taken place.
Hazel is an important native tree species, and its nuts are relished by red squirrels, mice and various birds such as woodpeckers. The Findhorn Hinterland Trust has been planting hazels as part of our work to diversify the Wilkie’s Wood and Fallen Acres areas. Their catkins and female flowers will be visible for another week or two, so have a close look and enjoy some of the first blossoms of spring.
Female flower of the hazel with pollen grains on it.
Posted in News
FHT Land Management Winter/Spring 2020/21
By Kajedo Wanderer
While much of the life on the land is hibernating, winter is a busy season for those of us working on the land.
Last winter we cleared the first three ‘islands’ of trees (roughly circular open spaces surrounded by the tall pines), planted 40% oaks, scarified (opened) the ground in preparation for natural regeneration of the surrounding scot’s pines. Now with three more ‘islands’ cleared this winter, the long timbers pulled out and the firewood stacked, the ground was ‘scarified’ (opened) for easier seeding and oaks were planted.
Another big project on our felling plan was clearing the site where we intend to build the new ‘Conservation Hub’ and thinning out the nearby Corsican Pines for milled timber – walls and floors of the building. Some 60 trees were felled and cut to size there. We pulled the timbers out with our tractor and stripped the bark off the intended post, beams and rafters for the new building. The timbers are ready – now we just need to complete our fundraising!
To the casual observer it isn’t always obvious why we cut down some trees while leaving others. But in our small woodland our fragile red squirrel population needs protecting – and it isn’t always easy to spot their drays (nests). We don’t cut trees with squirrel drays in them, nor those immediately surrounding them. There are also nests of birds which some of them return to year after year – those too we are trying to protect.
It was a busy season – albeit quiet on the people front. Due to Covid restrictions gatherings at the Hinterland shelter were limited – it was delightful to hear Taize singing coming from the shelter on some Sunday mornings, while the restrictions were eased somewhat. But during lockdown volunteer work was restricted to very small numbers coming out for ‘green gym’ – stacking wood in the forest, or for stripping bark off our timbers.
A few people came out to help progress the cob-wall building in the Outdoor Learning Space in the Edible Woodland Garden. We could not easily run our Saturday work parties and had no other groups on the land. However, probably also due to Covid there were significantly more people on our paths & tracks out for walks, runs or cycling. Getting some exercise and enjoying the natural environment, breathing some fresh air. It was delightful to see the little three year old kids (‘Findhorn Sprouts” with their carers in the woods and at the shelter on a regular basis.
This year we are organising four ‘Wild Camping Retreats’, starting on the first weekend in June; and ‘Out of the Ashes & Out of the Sand’ a week-long camping retreat in August. This title has new relevance after the recent tragic fires in the Park, resulting in the loss of the Community Centre and Main Sanctuary.
Now that spring has arrived (though unusually cold) our activities are changing and we are seeing an increase in bookings of the Hinterland Shelter (HS) area. The ‘Northern Lights Sangha’ have been meditating there quite frequently on Saturday mornings.
We are looking forward to welcoming work-parties again and to resuming our tours of the land.
It was great to see around eight children with their parents learning about trees as they helped plant some 35 saplings in the recently cleared SE corner of the woods.
We have completed our annual ‘topper work’ – cutting the gorse on firebreaks, paths, tracks, the Green Burial area and around the wind turbines. The ‘topper’ is then followed by the brushcutter which does the same work in the places the topper can’t reach – such as the slopes of Lyle’s wood. The ‘gorse cutting’ theme will continue well into the summer – pushing back invading gorse on Dune’s Heath and the lichen beds with loppers and handsaws. This time of the year it means working along the edges of a sea of coconut-scented yellow blossoms !
On a personal note, like many others in the Findhorn Foundation I have recently been made redundant. For the last five years I had been seconded to the FHT and, thankfully, in July the FHT will employ me half-time. Looking at the long term sustainability of our care for the land, I feel it is a good decision for the FHT to create its own position for a land manager.
In these strange and uncertain times many people, all over the world, are finding refuge and solace in the company of trees, in the uplifting, healing gifts of wilder nature around us.
With gratitude for this unique, beautiful piece of land in our care.
Yours in community,
Kajedo Wanderer
FHT Land Manager
Posted in News
FHT Apiary Update: A New Home for our Bee Equipment
Despite a frightfully cold May where we needed to feed our four overwintered hives of bees to keep them alive, we now are in the healthy position of having eleven hives in our apiary up by the wind turbines and should have some honey for sale come September – watch this space! We have also enjoyed having a few more people including some young folks come along to our weekly sessions with the bees to find out more about their fascinating world and help with
the practical work of making up new frames for the hives etc.
We now have a fantastic educational resource that we have developed for the FHT which we hope to use more of over the coming years. This has been created largely through the continual sterling efforts of our enthusiastic core team, Martin Harker, John Willoner and I, plus the generous funding that has come through Robert Holden and others. A huge thank you to all that have been involved to get us and the bees to this point.
One thing we have been missing is a shed close to our apiary to keep our various pieces of bee equipment in. Thanks to the generosity of George Goudsmit donating his shed which has been outside George Ripley’s house for a long time, the much appreciated funding of £250 from the Findhorn Wind Park Community Fund and our neighbour Ed Bichan’s skill with his JCB, we now have a shed in place on site! It needs a new roof and some TLC before it is fully functional but we feel that this is a great step forward.
Enjoy the pictures and if you do want to find out more or contribute in any way to our good work, do get in touch. New members always welcome and it’s a great way of supporting the land based and people work we do.
Jonathan Caddy
[email protected]